Elvis Is Leaving the Building: Nick's Cafe Closing

Elvis is about to leave the building.

The news was posted last week on the Nick's Cafe Facebook page: "It is with many mixed emotions announcing the closing of Nick's Cafe. After 30 some years it is time. Our last day will be March 10th. We have had customers become friends and have seen couples become families and families grow. We are blessed in so many ways to have shared so many memories with you all. We will be donating a few of our treasures to History Colorado. Thank you for your support over the years and may God bless you all."

Nick Andurlakis was a teenager working in the kitchen of the legendary Colorado Mine Company in Glendale when Elvis Presley was ushered in the back door for dinner one night in 1976. The restaurant was known for its big steaks and big-name visitors, but it also had a big sandwich, the Fool's Gold, a giant peanut-butter number with a giant price tag, put on the menu by owners Buck and Cindy Scott as a lark. As Andurlakis recalled a few years ago, “Elvis told me to bring him a big burger, but bring the sandwich, too, because he wanted to try it. He ended up eating three of them.”

The King was such a fan of the sandwich that he and a party celebrating his daughter's birthday flew into Stapleton Airport one night on his private 727 to pick up a big order.
From there, Andurlakis's dream took flight. A decade later, when he opened Nick's Cafe at 777 Simms Street in Lakewood, he made the diner a shrine to all things Elvis, attracting fans of both music and Greek food — as well as the Fool's Gold Sandwich: a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough bread slathered with margarine, filled with a full jar of creamy peanut butter and another jar of sugary blueberry preserves, topped with a pound of crisped-up bacon, then buttered up and baked.

But now, after more than three decades of taking care of business, followed by all the challenges of the pandemic, another Colorado classic is calling it quits. On March 10, Andurlakis will turn off the oven, pack up his memorabilia and switch off the lights.

And Elvis will leave the building.